Celebration of Women Writers

Behn, Aphra, 1640-1689

The Roundheads: or, The Good Old Cause

second edition; London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 185

Duberly, Frances Isabella Locke, 1829-1903

Journal Kept During The Russian War: From the Departure of the Army From England In April 1854, to the Fall of Sebastopol

London: Printed by E. Flesher for R. Tonson, 167

Sir Patient Fancy: A Comedy As it is Acted at the Dukes Theatre

Seaman, Augusta Huiell, 1879-1950

Couse, W. P.

The Mystery at Number Six

Bernhardt, Virgie

Peters, Marjee

Keo the Otter

Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, c192

Lowell, Amy, 1874-1925

Ayscough, Florence Wheelock, 1878-1942

Fir-Flower Tablets: Poems Translated From the Chinese

Haywood, Eliza Fowler, 1693?-1756

Idalia, or, The Unfortunate Mistress: A Novel

Warner, Susan, 1819-1885

Melbourne House

Alleman, Tillie Pierce

At Gettysburg, or, What a Girl Saw and Heard of the Battle: A True Narrative

Dansville, NY: F. A. Owen Publishing Company, c190

Chase, Annie


LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE 1
Author’s Preface
Anna Botsford Comstock of the Bureau of
Nature Study at Cornell University says : “Truly
the child cares very little about the forms of
things. He is more interested in what things do.”
J. M. Coulter of Chicago University says:
“They [plants] are as much alive as are animals,
and so far as mere living is concerned they live
in much the same way.”
This little book has been prepared with a view
to interesting the little people in the behavior
of plants at home, the author believing that there
the growing things teach their choicest and
most broadening lessons.      A. C.
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE2
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE 3
WHERE DO THE LITTLE
PLANT PEOPLE LIVE?
Plants! Plants! Plants!
Plants all over our big world!
Plants on the land!
Plants on the water!
Some of these dear little plant peo-
ple love to live high, high
up among the mountains.
There the wind is mer-
ry and often rough in his play.
There  the  sunbeams are br ight
and strong and go dancing up, up,
up  s teep  rocky  s l opes ,  o r  down ,
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE4
down, down, into dark places be-
tween the rocks.
Oftentimes big rocks plunge down
the mountain side, crushing every
little flower in their path.
But the little plant people of the
mountains love their home and will
have no other.
Some little plant people love best
to live down in the low-
lands between the
mountains.
There the wind is gentle in his
play.
There the sunbeams are warm and
bright.
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE 5
Some other plant people—most of
these are dwarfs—love to live up on
the hillside and even up on the sides
of the gray old rocks themselves.
Other plant people love the mead-
ow lands.
There the winds,
have the jolliest of
jolly times.
There the sunbeams sparkle so
with fun they make the brook laugh.
No wonder the plant people of the
meadow love their home and will
have no other.
Still other plant people love to live
in the woods.
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE6
There the winds put on their
gentlest manners.
There the sunbeams are soft and
tender and the shadows,
long and cool.
Some little plant peo-
ple live in the ponds and ditches
and streams and have the oddest
balloons and sails to keep themselves
afloat.
Other  p lant  peop le—many o f
these are giants—love to live in damp,
hot, sunny swamps. Others live in
the deep, wide, salty sea.
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE 7
WHAT ARE ALL THE
PLANTS DOING?
Every plant on the mountain, in
the lowlands, on the hills, in the
meadows,  in the woods,  in the
streams, in the damp swamp, and in
the deep wide sea, has work to do.
Every plant must feed itself.
Every plant must see that when
itself shall die a new plant just like it
shall come to take its place on the
earth.
Oh! What a task!
Yes ;  and you can never  f ind a
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE8
lazy plant though you seek the whole
world over.
No plant was ever known to frown
or cry or pout because of hard work.
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE 9
PLANTS AT SCHOOL.
Do the plant folks go to school ?
Oh yes ;  the i r  s choo l  room is
roofed with the blue, blue sky.
The breezes, the brooks, and the
birds, do the singing in the plant
school.
The sun does a great deal of the
teaching.
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE10
Every plant, little or big, can stand
or sit or lie down in school, just as
he likes.
What do plant scholars study ?
Cooking! They learn how to find,
mix and cook their own food.
The big grown-up plants and the
babies all study the same lessons,
and if the lessons are not learned the
plants die.
That frightens you! It does not
frighten plant people; they find the
lessons as easy as you do the eating
of ice cream.
It is great fun for a little plant to
mix together air and water and some
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE 11
things he finds in the soil and make
his own food. He does all this in
such a nice way that there are no
dishes to wash, no tables to set, and
no silver spoons to keep bright.
 
FIRST DAYS AT SCHOOL.
One day the seeds were dropped
into the soil.
That same day the baby plants
inside the seed shells began to go to
school.
The first thing they learned was
to take in water.
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE12
This they did till you would have
laughed to see how round and roly
poly they looked.
When they  were  swol len  just
enough, they learned—I cannot te l l
you how—that they needed some-
thing to eat.
That something was down in the
soil.
“We must have a tool to dig in
the soil with!” cried all the babies.
“Make your own tools,” cried the
sun. “Make your own tools; you can
if you work hard and fast.”
“All right, we can make them,”
said the plant children.
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE 13
“Roots are good tools,” cried they
all; “let’s make roots.”
“We will,” cried a plant in-
side an acorn shell, “and the
soil will help us.”
The soil did help the plant children
and the plant children helped them-
selves till there was the acorn child
with a fat white root backing out of
the end of her shell.
There was a bean with a nice little
root growing           right out of her
side.
Pumpkin Seed had a root growing
out at the small end of her shell.
Al l  these  and a  hundred other
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE14
first grade children had roots that
night when the sun went down.
“Good ! ”  c r i ed  the  sun ;  “We l l
done, little people; by and by you
shall come up to the light.”
“If we dig very hard with these
soft roots we shall soon spoil them,”
cried Bean.
“We must make the tips of our
roots hard and strong,” said Acorn.
“Yes, put tips on them,” cried a
Sun Flower child.
Then all the children fell to work
and made hard tips to wear at the
ends of their roots.
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE 15
“Bravo!” cried the Sun Teacher,
“Now for a new lesson.”
“We must have light;” cried the
Acorn child.
“L ight !  l i ght !  p l ease  g ive  us
light!” cried all the children.
“Work for it; earn it yourself;”
said the Sun Teacher.
Then all the little plant children
dug in the soil with their roots as
hard and as fast as they could.
With their roots they found they
could draw up food somewhat as
you draw up lemonade through a
quill.
This food made them grow larger.
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE16
“Light! light! Where is it? How
are we to get to it? We feel it up
above us.”
“Light! give us light, so we can
grow faster!” cried the plant children.
“See me,” said the Bean child, “I
have left my shell altogether; I wish
to spread myself out in the light.”
“Stems will push us up into the
light,” cried all the plant children.
How did they know this? “Stems
will push us up, let us make stems.”
Then all these first grade little
folks made themselves stems from
the food they drew up through their
roots.
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE 17
“Now for a push and a pull,” cried
these brave little folks.
They pushed, and the light up
above helped them by pulling, till
there were ever so many odd little
loops made of their stems pushing
up above the soil into the light.
The Sun Teacher kissed every one
of these brave little pupils.
“We too must get our tops up in
the light,” said Acorn.
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE18
“Yes,” cried all the little plant
folks, “now for another pull.”
Then all of the little plants made
their stems longer and longer, strong-
er and stronger, and how they did
pull, till—hurrah! there they all were
out of the soil, spreading their tops
where the sun could smile on them.
“Light! light! hurrah! Here we are
in the light!” cried all the pupils
together.
Then all the older scholars—the
trees and vines and shrubs—clapped
their hands and the winds whispered
all sorts of pretty and pleasant things
to the baby class.
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE 19
MORE LESSONS.
No sooner had the little plant
folks learned these lessons than the
Sun Teacher and the air began to
teach them others.
“We need something more,” cried
the little plants. “What is it?”
“It is not enough that we draw up
food from the soil,” said the Acorn
child. “We must mix other things
with it and cook it in the Sun.”
“How shall we do that?” said a
Pumpkin child.
“We must make us something to
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE20
cook in,” cried all the class together.
“What shall it be?”
“Leaves! leaves!” cried the Acorn
child, “we can spread our food out
in leaves and cook it in the sun.”
Then the whole class fell to mak-
ing leaves; the air helped them, the
sun helped them, their roots helped
them, their stems helped them, such
leaves as they had brought with
them from out their shells helped
them, till they grew so strong and so
wise that they learned the hardest
lesson of all.
They learned how to make leaves
from their food and how to bring
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE 21
more food up into the leaves and
change it to more and better food in
the sun.
Then how the brook did babble,
how the birds did sing, and how
happy the little plants were with
their first pretty green leaves!
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE22
SOME SECRETS ABOUT
THOSE LEAVES
No wonder the plants were proud
of their leaves.
They had made them very cun-
ningly.
They had made them with little
cells to hold food and water and
with little openings in them to let
air and moisture out and in.
Then they had covered the whole
with a nice little waterproof covering,
both to keep water in and to keep too
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE 23
much water from soaking in from
the outside.
Then they had made a stem for
every leaf so it could hang all by it-
self out in the sunshine.
Take care, Wind, do not shake
those new leaves too roughly.
Take care, little girls and boys, do
not break and waste such precious
things.
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE24
THE BEST LESSON OF ALL.
After the first leaves it was easy
to make more and more and more,
then more stems and branches.
Then these bright little pupils be-
gan to think of something else.
“We must take care that we leave
some seeds  so  there  wi l l  be  new
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE 25
plants to come to this school next
year,” said they.
“We must build something very
safe and snug to make and store
seeds in,” said they.
First, these plants, now grown to
be artists, made little green buds.
In secret they worked at the inside
of the little green buds, bringing up
just the right food and the right color
to make beautiful forms and tints.
Then one day,  when the Sun
Teacher was kindest, the winds soft
and the sky blue, the buds burst
open.
Oh joy! what a sight! Little green
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE26
cups holding up such silky, bright
colored blossoms! blossoms holding
up in their centres such
pret ty  l i t t le  s tems with
t iny yellow pocket books
fastened to the end of each stem !
Each one of the pocket books was
full of yellow dust more precious
than gold.
These stems with the pocket books
stood all around another stem which
had a sticky knob on the top all
ready to catch the yellow dust.
“Come bees,” called the busy plant
folks,  “come! come and help us;
come this way! this way!”
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE 27
Then the plants waved their gay
blossom banners in the breeze till
the bees afar off saw them and came
hurrying up.
 “Buzz!  buzz!  honey!  There is
always honey hidden under such
pretty banners,” said the bees.
“Where is it? Where is it?”
“Oh! we smell it!”
Then the bees blundered about in-
side the blossoms till they shook the
gold out of the pocket books and
rubbed it right on the sticky knob on
the stem at the center.
“Thank you! thank you!” said the
plants as the bees buzzed off. “Thank
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE28
you!  Now we can make some seeds.”
Sure enough, the seeds began to
grow down below the sticky knob
because the gold dust put new
life into them—in the nicest
little boxes you ever saw.
Bean had a pod box and—well
you can see all the boxes for your-
selves by looking about you.
Some of the plants put hooks on
their seed boxes so they could cling
to things and so carry the seeds from
place to place.
Other plants made air boats for
their seeds and others—you can find
them all out for yourselves.
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE 29
A FUR COVERED BUNDLE.
Lady’s Slipper (wild tu-
lip), that pretty pink flower
you find growing in shady
nooks under the trees, wears
furs—or is it green velvet?
She comes up with a little
velvet roll of green looking
full of mystery.
What can be done up in that fuzzy
bundle?
The bundle unrolls a little; it is a
leaf with another precious furry bun-
dle done up inside of it.
The second bundle unrolls a little!
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE30
Aha ! there is a furry stem inside;
on the end of the furry stem is a furry
knob.
Up pushes the stem for the sun is
warm and the spring winds are very
soft and gentle.
The knob unrolls! a slipper! a
slipper! a little pink slipper with pink
fur at the ankle part to keep off the
insects! Is it for some sweet little Cin-
derella of the green wood?
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE 31
PLANT FURS
Many of the plants wear furs to
keep out the cold. The furs keep in
the moisture too, and keep insect
robbers from coming into the honey
storehouse to steal.
You would laugh to see an ant try-
ing to climb a furry stem for honey.
He climbs up one step; he falls
down three steps; he tries it again;
he gets tangled in the fur; it brushes
his eyes unpleasantly, till, at last,
down he tumbles and, brave as he is,
he has to give up that drop of honey,
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE32
though he can smell it so plainly far
up there in the pretty flower cup-
board.
Sometimes the furs are placed
along the stems and upon the leaves
to keep insects from eating the green
parts of the plant.
Hepatica wears long silky white
furs on her new tender spring leaves
and stems.
She has shorter, stouter furs on
those hard tough leaves which she
kept green all winter.
You can think of dozens of plants
that wear furs: Pussy Willows,
Primroses.
LITTLE PLANT PEOPLE 1
2002
An Elfin Press e-reprint


Little Plant People, Part I

University of Pennsylvania

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